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Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter—
CHAIRPERSON of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture, Tapiwa Matangaidze last night waded into the chaos that has engulfed Zifa by calling for the urgent liquidation of the association as a way of restoring sanity. The former Premier Soccer League boss described Zifa as technically insolvent and bereft of all credibility.
“We can clearly see that Zifa as a brand has now lost all credibility.
“We can debate reasons that have contributed to this debacle and appropriately apportion blame, but when all is said and done, there are facts on the ground and no amount of blame can hide the reasons for that.
“Zifa has reached an all time low and continues on a daily downward slope with no end in sight. It’s clear that Zifa is technically insolvent; there’s no money there,” said Matangaidze.
The football motherbody plunged deeper into crisis last week when the senior national soccer team refused to board a flight to Malawi for an African Cup of Nations qualifier over unpaid bonuses.
The situation was saved by local cleric Prophet Walter Magaya, who bailed out the Warriors by booking a bus and paying for their allowances from his personal funds.
Just as the nation was waiting to see how Zifa would respond to the Malawi bungling in preparation for this weekend’s home African Nations Championships qualifier against the Comoros Islands, the association again headed straight for the mud.
Embattled Zifa boss Cuthbert Dube and his lieutenants announced the suspension from the association of 14 officials, including vice-president Omega Sibanda, board member for finance Ben Gwarada and 11 regional leaders suspected of backing last month’s attempted ouster of Dube.
Matangaidze said Zifa had failed to engage corporate partners and the government and the list of its wrongs was endless.
“We’ve called for the provisional liquidation of Zifa and the appointment of a judicial manager and subsequently a stabilisation committee which action is above board.
“It’ll never be misconstrued as government intervention because Zifa is an insolvent organisation.
“Laws of Zimbabwe and laws of any other country are pretty clear on how to deal with insolvent organisations.
“We’re hoping that the High Court or whoever is appointed as the judicial manager is somebody with a clear appreciation of football governance and that person reaches out to stakeholders; get a leaf from countries like Cameroon which have stabilisation committees.
“That way you bring back confidence into the association because without that, I don’t see any organisation entrusting its funds with an organisation whose wheels are off,” he said.
He reiterated calls for Dube to bow out and allow for fresh ideas.
“Anybody worth his mettle and finds himself in such a precarious position should just throw in the towel. It’s now time for some intervention of some sort, which is why I’m proposing this type of intervention.
“It won’t be government interference at all because there are three arms of government; the legislature, executive and judiciary, and Fifa has an issue with the executive getting involved, but if the judiciary comes in, it won’t be intervention,” Matangaidze said.
It also emerged last night that the government, through the Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC), is likely to reverse the suspensions of the Zifa officials on the advice of a senior Fifa official.
Sources said the SRC would also push for the June 27 joint meeting that Zifa chief executive officer Jonathan Mashingaidze announced had been postponed to go ahead with all the suspended officials in attendance.
Mashingaidze had announced that the joint extraordinary meeting had been pushed back to July or August.
SRC director-general Charles Nhemachena described the Monday purges as a serious threat to national interest, saying he would provide a remedy early next week.
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